To the editor:

(Regarding the letter titled, "Stronger gun laws needed.") I am going to give you a lot of leeway and keep my words kind because you are probably a fine young man. I do find I have to rebut a few things. 

First of all is that handguns are used in most shootings. The AR15 has been around since the mid 60s and to my knowledge has never been used in a murder in Rhode Island. 

You say if an armed teacher "goes crazy" and shoots up a school what would stop any crazy person from shooting up a school. Do you think a person intent on mass murder is going to worry about being charged with unlawful possession of a firearm? Laws are great if people follow them but evil people do not follow laws. 

I also cannot believe any student in Barrington High School lives in fear of being shot. 

You also mention ridding the world of this problem. I was once your age and was of the same thought and mind. First, we cannot change the world. It's full of power crazy dictators and evil-doers that love nothing more than to cause genocide on a segment of the population that is unarmed. School shootings and crime are a societal problem that no law can fix. 

Please start looking inward. It's your peers that are shooting up schools, not 71-year-old guys like me with evil rifles. Perhaps if students can be a bit kinder and more respectful of their own, much of this would stop. It must be terrible to not only be bullied at school but also 24-7 on social media. 

I don't pretend to know the answer to this problem but do know more laws are not going to fix anything. 

Michael Panasuik

Barrington